Category: Uncategorized

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
—Albert Einstein

Subverses

Pandemic Haiku

A letter to friends of your government –

What would it take for
you to change your mind? What will
open your eyes now?

If not now, then when?
If not you, then who? I ask,
Who is WHO? Tell me.

Who makes all the rules?
Is it a cat in a hat?
WHO knows the answer.

Who tells WHO the deal?
You know the answer: Bill Gates.
What is he selling?

Why don’t you know this?
Big Pharma owns all the news,
bought doctors, med schools.

They’ve hijacked our minds.
They’ve stolen, jabbed our children.
No wonder you sleep.

Freedom in the now
Just you, between earth and sky
Despite everything

What will you do?
It is not for you to say
Except, be ready

See: Who Chooses the Official, Governmentally Approved “Health Experts”?

Looking at the moon

looking at the moon
with trees abiding, we know
there is no covid

at our hospital
in the empty waiting room
there is no covid

under microscopes
scientists peer, sketch bad code
from fragments: Covid!

walking under stars
with the good earth underfoot
there is no covid

poring over stats:
where have all the flu deaths gone?
I bet it’s covid.

so nix the vaxxes
we don’t need no great reset
masks off: No covid!

Future Con

by the glare of the chemical sun
we’ll know we’ve been conned

in the shadow of buzzing towers
we’ll know we’ve been had

but if these leaves be found
in the alleyways of the future

let them be bound in a book of magic
data uncollected, unsecured

Your Move

The universe:
does it all make sense,
or is it out of whack?

Fascism wears a smiley mask.
fake consensus = censorship
settled science = political science

Who has the rights to this reality show?
Wipe clean the mirror.
What could possibly go wrong?

Remember, the door
to Nature and Spirit
is a quiet mind.

Stop doing what doesn’t work.
Listen for what is most true.
Do what moves you.

Vaccination is rape: A 3-part lesson plan

1.
Discuss:
Vaccination is rape.

2.
Compare and contrast:
Mandatory masks are foreplay;
Coerced vaccination is rape.

3.
Complete the equation:
V =  _________.
Suggested answers: rape, child abuse, genocide, fascism, transhuman, evil, fake science, for profit, above the law, AI simulation, genetic modification, aborted fetuses, neurotoxins…

Covert Tunes

Where Have All the Flu Deaths Gone

(with a mournful air, to the tune of “Where Have all the Flowers Gone,” by Pete Seeger)

Where have all the flu deaths gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flu deaths gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flu deaths gone?
Covid claimed them every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the old ones gone?
This year passing
Where have all the old ones gone?
Died all alone
Where have all the old ones gone?
Called them Covid every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the children gone?
All in masking
Where have all the children gone?
Left all alone
Where have all the children gone?
Gone for vaccines every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time patriots
Where have all the soldiers gone?
For freedom all
Where are all the soldiers now?
Joined the people every one
Thank god they finally learned,
Thank god they finally turned.

Where have all the doctors gone?
Long time practicing
Where have all the doctors gone?
Long time our friends
Where have all the doctors gone?
Covid truthers every one
Now they will do no harm.
Now they will do no harm.

Imagine

 (with apologies to J. Lennon)

Imagine there’s no covid
It’s easy if you try
No plague inside us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Knowing they’re okay… Aha-ah…

Imagine there’s no lockdowns
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to stay at home for
TV religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace… You…

You may say I’m a denier
But I’m not the only one
I hope today you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no fake testing
I wonder if you can
No need for masks or distance
A total vaccine ban
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world… You…

You may say I’m a denier
But I’m not the only one
I hope today you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Little Masklets

(after Malvina Reynolds, “Little Boxes”)

Little masklets on the sidewalk
Little masklets made of ticky tacky
Little masklets on the sidewalk
Little masklets all the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

And the people in the houses
All believed in the coronaspiracy
Where they were put under lockdown
And they stayed afraid all the same

And there’s doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they’re all afraid of coronavirus
And they all sound just the same

And they all quote all the cases
And close all their businesses
And they all have masked children
And the children hear the lies

And the children go to vaccine camp
And then to the isolation pod
Where they’re given smart devices
And they end up all the same

And they can’t go into business
Or play sports or have a social life
In masklets made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of covid lies
And they all look just the same

The Bigger the Lie

(revising Jimmy Cliff, “The Harder They Come”)

Well, they tell me of a virus out in the air
Waiting for me so I die
But between the day you’re born and when you die
They never seem to hear even your cry

So as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna live for freedom, what’s ours
Because the bigger the lie,
The harder they fall, one and all
Ooh, the bigger their lie,
The harder they fall, one and all

Well, the oppressors are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think that they have got the battle won
I say forgive them Lord, they know exactly what they’ve done

‘Cause, as sure as the sun will shine
I’m gonna live for freedom, what’s ours
Because the bigger the lie,
The harder they fall, one and all
Ooh, the bigger their lie,
The harder they fall, one and all

And I keep on fighting for the things I know
Though they tell my everywhere I can’t
But I’d rather be a free man in my light
Than living as a puppet or a slave

I’m gonna live for freedom, what’s ours
Because the bigger the lie,
The harder they fall, one and all
Ooh, the bigger their lie,
The harder they fall, one and all

Hey, the bigger the lie
The harder they fall, one and all
Hey, the bigger the lie,
The harder they fall, one and all
Hey, the bigger their lie,
The harder they fall, one and all

Walk for Freedom

(walking tempo)

Part A
Join’ us’ for’ free’-do’-m’ –‘ – ‘
M:4/4
|:AGCE GF3:|

Part B
Join’ us’ for’ free’-dom’ – ‘
Join’ us’ for’ free’-ee’ –‘
M: 6/8
|:AGC DG2:|

Interludes: pots and pans

Other Voices:
Gareth Icke Rally Rap
TNS Blanco Slam Poetry “FREEDOM”

Memes Against the Machine

Bob Marley sang it best, bringing into mass consciousness the concept of jammin’—the musicians’ favorite pastime. Jimi Hendrix was another legendary aficionado of the art of the jam, honing his chops by sitting in at night clubs after hours. And the jazz greats, it should go without saying… except at a jazz festival today you are more likely to see the players reading from charts. True improvisation, when predictable marketing comes into play, I guess gets too risky.

More than entertainment, jamming brings us into the heart of organic life itself, into the core creative force, into the perpetual motion of Flow.

Long committed to the practice of a balanced life, I once conceived of it as a kind of “lifestyle architecture.” But as one desired project gives way to another over time, a more appropriate model comes to the fore: improvisation. Being willing to tear down or leave behind one edifice to build another, or to ride out free of solid structures altogether.

In making live, spontaneous, original music with others, we ride the roller coaster of creation itself, with no time to think in our static ways. We must bring everything we have learned or suffered or desired in the past into that arrow of forward motion, too fast and immediate to know what’s coming next. Bringing the best of who we are to the shared container, we have nothing left to constrain the joy of living fully. We fly forward, not random but grounded in trust, guided by our muscle memory of what works to nurture beauty, harmony, coherence.

All that said, it’s naïve to think that good music results when “anything goes.” Music, like life, or any other art, requires experience and sensitivity to turn out better than a chaos, a shambles, a shapeless porridge. As a hand drummer I strive to find the appropriate balance in any given situation between a solid foundational beat, and more inventive variations.

How does all this apply to you, if you are not a musician?

Step outside of your established self, for a moment. Suspend your beliefs. Imagine a view with no room. Think Nature, raw and ready for what comes next.

Picture a universal avatar, who responds from the heart to notions of nationhood; juggles eternal truths for closer inspection; tries on hats of other identity. Taking the path that always opens, one foot forward.

When you dance, try moving from the belly. Do improv as a political practice: could it be any worse? We just might glimpse the possible beyond the impossible closing walls.

Nature, Culture and Spirit are all organic (which is to say living) in their essence. Not fixed, not static, not formulated and dissected and rigidly defined once and for all. But evolving, morphing, transforming, growing, changing… alive. Even that trinity of realms are not separate, but overlapping lenses of our whole reality. In a college course I took on music improvisation, the instructor gave us our first homework assignment: Listen to nature.

A spiritual culture is not dogmatic, restrictive, jealous or guarded. It favors adaptation, innovation, creativity, respect, harmony, expression, ecstasy, fun, sharing, beauty, communion, communication, cooperation, intuition, and freedom.

The anthropologist Mircea Eliade observed that traditional cultures conceived of time as a circle. Changes over time meant little more than repetitions of the “myth of eternal return.” Western thought broke that circle of tradition and laid time out on a linear railroad track bound for “the end of history.” If it appears that 2020 has brought us close to the end of that line, it’s probably by design.

Could we not update the time-honored circle, making use of our progressivist notions of evolution, without discarding the natural and human altogether?

How about the spiral as a vehicle of change? That figure would suit what works for music: where solo melodies and polyrhythms can lead the bass beat structure into pleasing avenues of expression, while still respecting the comfort of the common ground.

The circle formed in moving time is a spiral. Always the next moment brings a new resolution, yet unresolved for what comes after. We enter the realm of meta: as the Tibetan chant says, going beyond, beyond… even beyond beyond! (Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate).

We can use tradition to depart from. We can critique present and past politics to prime a springboard to something other. That leap requires letting go of fear. A good antidote to fear of the unknown is to acknowledge the madness and folly of continuing on the dreadful path of the known. That time to leap, unfortunate or not, is now.

The path of the wanderer, renegade, or spiritual warrior (all of whom, in their own ways, are dedicated to bringing genuine light into our world by making the darkness conscious) is far from an easy road to travel, and this path gets narrower and narrower… as there are so many traps, temptations, and distractions that can steer us away from what we are here to accomplish.”

—Bernhard Guenther

We born of the last century were programmed into that linear mindset of Western “civilization” that discarded the ancient cultures in favor of a “brave new world” of urban life and technology, a one-way ticket to… where?

Returning to my own life story, I have noticed rather a recurring pattern—a repeating cycle, in each successive phase of a nomadic life—of attraction, adaptation, assimilation, turning to alienation/disillusionment, detachment, disconnection, leading to a new discovery or decision. Coming to the end of each stage, I arrive at the gateway to change.

I like to think that along the way I progressed, in following an inner call to the wild and free, while seeking also a sustainable home close to nature. Neither stuck in a stagnant circle somewhere in a suburb, nor aimlessly adrift on a solo jam to nowhere… but rather like the eagle in the Rainbow song…

We circle around, we circle around, the boundaries of the Earth… the boundless universe.

I gather these leaves before you, not as an altar to my unique or common history, but to light a small fire for your own inspiration, to warm your hands as you contemplate the course of your life, and of our pressing predicament.

What are you called to play next, on this instrument of your life, to sound in our shared song?

—

Nowick Gray writes from Salt Spring Island, BC. His books of genre-bending fiction and creative nonfiction explore the borders of nature and civilization, imagination and reality, choice and manifestation. Connect at NowickGray.com to read more. A regular contributor to The New Agora, Nowick also offers perspectives and resources on alternative culture and African drumming, and helps other writers as a freelance copyeditor at HyperEdits.com.

by Caitlin Johnstone

Do not let the news man train you how to see.

Do not let the pundit train you how to feel.

Do not let the teacher train you how to think.

Do not let the preacher train you how to love.

Do not let the banker train you how to value.

Do not let Hollywood train you how to be.

Don’t let them train you.

They were appointed by the powerful to teach you how to live
in a world that is small, too small for wild humans.

Too small for humans who haven’t been house trained,
groomed, spayed and neutered,
and taught parlor tricks
like how to ignore life’s intrinsic breathtaking majesty.

Too small for humans who perceive their own boundlessness,
their own vast unpredictable inner wildernesses,
their own beauty,
their own holiness,
their own worthiness,
their own innate equality
with those holding their leash.

So they train us.

They train us to believe the world fits neatly
into flat, finite conceptual boxes.

That life is predictable, that our nature is well-mapped.

That we live in a 2-D colorless cage
from which there can be no escape
and about which everything is known.

As though narrative could even touch this blazing cacophony,
let alone encapsulate it.

They are lying to you, my beloved.

They are lying each and every time they open their pixelated mouths.

This life is so much more than they will ever allow you to believe.

So very immense.

So very unexplored.

So very unpredictable.

So very juicy.

So very sexy.

So very, very, very beautiful.

The unknown unknowns dwarf the known unknowns,
and the known unknowns dwarf the knowns.

But they will never let you know this.

So don’t ask their permission.

Take off that leash, wild apeling.

Unblinker those eyes and unshackle those legs.

Those chains are not there to protect you from the world, my beloved.

They are there to protect your trainers

from you.

---

This post originally appeared at Caitlin Johnstone’s blog.